Deuteronomy 26

26 ¹ When you come into the land that your Father is giving you as an inheritance, and you take possession of it and settle in it,

Bringing the Firstfruits Home

² you shall take some of the firstfruits of all the produce of the ground, which you harvest from the land that your Father is giving you, and put it in a basket, and go to the place that your Father will choose to place his name. ³ You shall go to the priest who is serving at that time and say to him, "I declare today to your Father that I have come into the land that our Father swore to our ancestors to give us." ⁴ Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of your Father. ⁵ And you shall declare before your Father: "My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt and lived there as a foreigner, few in number, and there he became a nation — great, mighty, and numerous. ⁶ But the Egyptians mistreated us and afflicted us and forced us into hard labor. ⁷ Then we cried out to our Father, and our Father heard our cry and saw our suffering, our toil, and our oppression. ⁸ So our Father brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs and wonders. ⁹ And he brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰ And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the ground that you, our Father, have given me." Then you shall set it down before him and worship before him. ¹¹ And you shall rejoice in all the good things that your Father has given to you and to your household — you, and the Levite, and the foreigner living among you.

¹² When you have finished setting aside the full tithe of your produce in the third year — the year of the tithe — and have given it to the Levite, the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow, so that they may eat within your towns and be satisfied, ¹³ then you shall say before your Father, "I have removed the sacred portion from my house, and I have given it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all the commandment you gave me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, nor have I forgotten them. ¹⁴ I have not eaten of it while in mourning, nor removed any of it while unclean, nor offered any of it to the dead. I have obeyed my Father; I have done everything you commanded me. ¹⁵ Look down from your holy dwelling, from heaven, and bless your people Israel and the ground that you have given us, as you swore to our fathers — a land flowing with milk and honey."

Heart and Soul Obedience

¹⁶ Today your Father commands you to keep these statutes and rules. Keep and obey them with all your heart and with all your soul.

Declared His Own

¹⁷ You have declared today that your Father is your Father, and that you will walk in his ways and keep his statutes, his commandments, and his rules, and obey him. ¹⁸ And your Father has declared today that you are his people, his treasured possession, as he promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments, ¹⁹ and that he will set you high above all the nations he has made, in praise and in fame and in honor, and that you will be a people holy to your Father, just as he promised.